Mistakes, Pain, and a Brilliant Momentary Light
by TheGirlWhoBelievedInStars
Summary: Percy Weasley had a rather bad habit of making mistakes.


_Written for the War of the Elemental Song Quotes Challenge using the Light prompt "Mistakes and pain lead us to a brilliant momentary light." - TWO-MIX, "Rhythm Emotion" - Read and enjoy!_

* * *

Percy had a rather bad habit of making mistakes.

This habit was not by any means one he enjoyed flaunting, as anyone who knew him could tell you. They weren't the kind of big mistakes that everyone frowned upon, either. As a child, Percy had been quite mindful of rules, and the criticism of his siblings led to an ironic desire to continue the practice as he grew older, to prove himself. Yet somehow, he often felt that in the midst of the violent, racist Slytherins and silly, frivolous purebloods who became his colleagues and coworkers, that he was the most flawed of them all.

There was one point in his life, however, that he was proud of. There was one day, just one day, when he felt right, when the sun shone for the defective life of Percy Weasley.

But in the eyes of the fourteen-billion-year-old universe, the life of the sun is a mere trifle, and there are brighter stars: Sirius, Vega, Betelgeuse. In the eyes of the universe, the sun is a nothing.

And in a blink of the universe's great old eyes, the sun will be gone.

* * *

_The First Mistake_

Percy's mistakes began in childhood. He couldn't remember anything from his younger days other than memories of his brothers' teasing and his refusals to speak to them in return.

The first one was from when he was no older than five. He'd wanted to read a book to his parents - it was something trivial, a _Toadstool Tales_ story or something of the like - but Fred, who had likely already heard the story several times that week, stole the Weasleys' old copy and threw it to the gnomes in their garden. The gnomes, being rather destructive, devoured the worn, dog-eared pages, and though Percy, already an avid reader, could already recite the story from memory, he ignored Fred for a month and a half.

This wasn't the last time he disregarded his family.

* * *

_A Continuation of His Past Mistakes_

It was a well-known fact that Percy simply did not get along well with his siblings, the twins in particular. It was understandable to those who knew them. Ambitious Percy was quite evidently the black sheep of the loyal, close-knit Weasley family, as if the knitter had been distracted and an incorrectly-done line stood out in the middle of an otherwise-perfect Weasley sweater.

Percy did not mind this. Hogwarts students weren't always kind towards the shabby family that chose family over position, and he accepted this knowingly, convincing himself that it was true. It even became the subject of heated arguments with his roommate Oliver - were the Weasleys (besides Percy) really that great? - yet strangely, it was Oliver, not the Weasley, who was on the defense.

He'd discovered that an association with the Weasleys was not a good thing to have. All his siblings were incredibly talented athletically, and of course, as members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Wizarding Britain's most popular sport was what the Weasleys were known for at Hogwarts. If you wanted to be a Quidditch star, the connotation was fantastic. Percy, of course, didn't want to be a Quidditch star.

It was worse when he left school. Many times, Percy had overheard Ministry witches and wizards, the staff of his hopeful future employer, discussing the laughable Muggle interests of his father or the unambitiousness of his mother. He tried not to go by Weasley as much as possible - he found he elicited a better response from new acquaintances when he introduced himself as Walmsley or Wembley or Weatherby.

* * *

_A Final Mistake_

Then came the war. Don't get him wrong - Percy didn't think there was a war. Maybe he did, really. Maybe he didn't want to admit that his family was right and his Ministry was wrong. Either way, Percy chose his ambition over the Weasleys.

"Why weren't you in damned _Slytherin_?" Ginny screamed at him as he slammed the front door of Twelve Grimmauld Place behind him, fuming.

Her words haunted him. Why _wasn't_ he?

* * *

_One Small But Brilliant Ray of Sunlight_

Cornelius Fudge had been wrong.

There was a war.

Percy's family had been completely and entirely correct the entire time.

And Percy was not brave enough to admit it.

Why had he been placed in Gryffindor? Was it a simple matter of being a Weasley, that one had to be a Gryffindor? Was it just a reflex of the Hat after his ancestors, grandfather, father, and brothers (not to mention the women that married into the Weasleys)?

But then he heard the news that Hogwarts was fighting. He heard that his family was in danger, and he knew he needed to help. It wasn't a priority to stay away from his family anymore, and it was a priority to make sure that him setting himself apart from them hadn't killed them. So he chose to fight, and he could only hope that his arrival at Hogwarts was like the return of the Prodigal Son.

(Because if not, what would he do with himself?)

And they did. They accepted him. They were happy about his return to the Weasleys. Fred even cracked a joke.

* * *

_The Most Pain Percy Ever Experienced (And Because Of His Own Mistakes)_

And then Fred died.

Fred died, because he'd been making a joke for Percy just to show that he really did care about his brother.

There had been that ray of light there, that beautiful, radiant light, but even the sun won't last forever.


End file.
